5 Ways to Get Your Resume Noticed, Not Tossed

Most hiring managers – whether it’s a human resource manager, recruiting director, or another executive – get flooded with resumes. Put yourself in their shoes. A potential employer usually knows within seconds whether your resume is worth reading. It must catch his/her eye, suck him in, and leave him wanting to know more. Your resume must make a good first impression on your behalf, or you’ll never get called for a phone or in-person interview. Don’t get your resume tossed.

Here are my top five ways to write a strong resume that will get results:

Don’t just list job descriptions. Show how you excelled in each job by emphasizing your specific accomplishments (e.g. Led a team of 10 and increased year-over-year sales by 20 percent). Avoid boring, vague words like “coordinated” or “facilitated.”

Use active verbs and keywords related to the job you’re applying for so employers can search for specific words to find you. Strong words include “maximized,” “transformed,” “directed.” Search online for good sample resumes from your chosen industry and carefully read the job description for the job you’re applying for to find keywords.

Make your resume easy to read and visually pleasing with clear font, proper spacing, a streamlined layout, and absolutely no spelling or punctuation errors. It should be flawless.

Look at your resume and ask yourself honestly, would you hire yourself? You may know you’re a good employee, but does your resume show that? Now edit your resume until it looks like the resume of a person you would hire for the job. Be honest!

Don’t send the same resume to very different jobs. Tailor your resume to each job to show you’re a good fit for that job.

When you’re ready to send off your resume, email it as a .pdf and .doc file to ensure it can be read on most computers. If you want your resume to be the best it can be, send it to us for top-notch professional editing.

About Our President

Julie Tam leads The Application Masters team, personally communicates with all clients, and edits most of their documents. Julie is also an award-winning, Emmy-nominated TV news anchor/reporter, writing stories on tight deadlines every day for a local audience of thousands upon thousands and sometimes a national audience of millions. More>>